African Athletics Championships: Enekwechi set new record as Kenya top table
Team Nigeria shot putter Chukwuebuka Enekwechi improved his own championship record on the fifth and final day of the African Championships in Saint Pierre, Mauritius, on Sunday/
Enekwechi led a strong men’s shot put final, the Commonwealth silver medallist retaining his title from Asaba four years ago with a performance that adds 12cm to his own championship record.
Each of his six attempts went beyond the 20-metre mark, with his best coming in the fifth round.
The top three athletes all surpassed 20 metres, South Africa’s Kyle Blignaut throwing 20.60m for silver and Egypt’s Mohamed Magdi Hamza recording 20.33 for bronze.
The final day of competition had opened with the 20km race walk events and a Kenyan double was achieved by Samuel Gathimba and Emily Ngii.
Gathimba, who was third at the World Athletics Race Walking Team Championships Muscat 22 in March, claimed his third consecutive African title in 1:22.40 after winning a battle with South Africa’s Wayne Snyman.
In the women’s race, Ngii clocked 1:34.30 to win by more than a minute ahead of Ethiopia’s defending champion Yehualeye Beletew (1:35.48).
Kenya’s world leader Abel Kipsang pipped South Africa’s Ryan Mphahlele to the men's 1500m title, 3:36.57 to 3:36.74, while Werkuha Getachew led an Ethiopian top two in the women’s 3000m steeplechase, running 9:36.81 ahead of Zerfe Wondemagegn with 9:41.37.
Kenya’s Jarinter Mawia Mwasya won the women’s 800m in 2:02.80 and Ethiopia’s Hailemariyam Amare claimed the men’s 5000m crown in 13:36.79.
Another double for Zazini and Van der Walt
Sokwakhana Zazini and Zeney van der Walt achieved another South African 400m hurdles double, Zazini clocking 49.42 and Van der Walt running 56.00.
The pair claimed gold medals at the World U18 Championships in Nairobi in 2017 and then completed another double at the World U20 Championships in Tampere the following year, with their success in Saint Pierre bringing them their first senior continental titles.
In the 4x400m finals, the South African quartet claimed women’s gold in 3:29.34, while the men’s title went to Botswana in 3:04.27.
Senegal's Sangone Kandji leapt a PB of 13.76m to win the women's triple jump, while Algeria's Hichem Bouhanoune won the men's high jump on countback (2.15m).
Kenya ended the top on the medals table for a second straight time.
The Kenyans won their tenth gold medal, and 23rd in total, on Sunday to finish ahead of South Africa, who had one gold medal less but a superior 36 overall.
Javelin star Julius Yego threw 79.62m, a season's best, to see off old rival Ihab Addelrahman of Egypt and secure a historic fourth straight title in a row.
The Kenyan, world champion in 2015, said the triumph has given him a boost in another World Championship year, with the global championships taking place in the United States in just over a month.
"The last two years have been challenging because of an injury - I contemplated retiring but now I'm confident I still have what it takes," Yego told BBC Sport Africa.
Nigeria and Algeria won five golds apiece to finish third and fourth on the table, just ahead of Ethiopia and Botswana, with four golds each, at the first finals with a record 47 nations.
Burkina Faso finished with two gold medals, while six countries won one - with Niger's Aminatou Seyni creating history in the women's 200m.
No Nigerien had ever won a medal at the championships before and the 25-year-old, who recently beat American Allyson Felix in Ostrava, took a historic first gold medal in 23.04 seconds.
"This is my first gold medal, and this is also the first gold medal for Niger at the African Athletics Championship - I'm very pleased with it and I'm very proud," Seyni told BBC Sport.
"Unfortunately, with the rain it wasn't easy, but I gave it all out there. My aim this season is to reach the final at the World Championships and try my best to be on the podium."
A championships whose conditions regularly proved challenging were once again earmarked by heavy rain and wind, with late programming changes also making life difficult for the athletes.
"I didn't do enough warm-up - I was scared I would pull a muscle, or anything could happen," reacted the new African men's 200m champion, Letsile Tebogo of Botswana, after winning in 20.26 seconds.
"It means a lot to me because it's going to make me push even harder to get more medals for my country. The conditions were bad because I hadn't done enough warm-up and we rushed to get into a race and it was raining but you have to do your best and make people enjoy athletics."
It was the same feeling for Cameroonian sprinter Emmanuel Alobwede, who won silver in the 200m final.
"When I arrived at the stadium, they had changed the time of the race, but I didn't know, so I only had 25 minutes to warm-up," he told BBC Sport Africa.
"But as I went on the track, I told to myself it's not 25 minutes of warm-up that can prevent me to get a medal because I had travelled for 13 hours to come here."
"This is my first big medal in an international championship, I'm very happy for it. It doesn't matter whether gold or silver, I'm just happy I had a medal at a continental championship."
Senegal had to wait until the very last day of the competition to win their first gold medal at the Championships as Sangoné Kandji won the women's triple jump final with a personal best jump at 13.76 metres.
"I feel very emotional, and I am very happy. It's my first African medal at senior level," explained Kandji.
"I was here in 2009 as a junior and I won the long jump title, so I can say Mauritius is my country because I have now won the gold medal for triple jump."
